Kris's Tour of the Beautiful Lake Superior Area

We have a guest poster today, Kris, a friend of the blog. She vacationed with her family in Michigan's Upper Penninsula (UP) this summer and is sharing her trip with us. I spent a summer in the UP during college doing geologic field work and saw nothing like the stunning sights she shares. In full disclosure, what I remember most about my summer there were the hordes of mosquitoes and the swamps we trudged through looking for rock outcrops. After reading about Kris's trip, clearly, I need to visit again. The area is quite beautiful along with some interesting history. With no further ado, get ready for a trip to the UP.

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Hello fellow Live-and-Learners-Toss-and-Turners!  I had mentioned to June that my family vacationed in part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula this past summer.  She asked if I would like to share about my travels, so here we are!  I hope you enjoy hearing about this beautiful section of my home state.  I have gained much from reading June's travel tales, and her descriptions of her home state of West Virginia have inspired not one, but two family trips there. I'm not June, but I can try to share my travels with equal excitement.  🙂

 www.mapsland.com.
As you have already gathered, Michigan is my home state.  Michigan is divided into two peninsulas.  The lower peninsula is the part that looks like a mitten and is where most of the population lives.  The upper peninsula is more rustic and remote.  Our peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac (say "Mack-in-aw") Bridge, which is a long suspension bridge over what is known as the Straits of Mackinac.  If you are curious about the bridge, here's a link:  https://mymichiganbeach.com/mackinac-bridge-facts/ We are surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes.  We vacationed near Lake Superior, which is the northernmost of the lakes, and is a major shipping area.  

My son attends university in the Upper Peninsula in a town known as Sault Saint Marie (say "Soo Saint Marie", commonly known as "The Soo").  He is spending the summer there working, so we opted for a vacation fairly close to him so we could spend part of our time together.  The Soo is well known for its locks, a parallel set of locks which enable shipping between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.  While we have been to The Soo frequently, we haven't been able to go on a boat tour of the locks due to seasonal timing issues (tourist attractions lose their luster when you are moving a kid onto campus).  We spent a night in town to give us the chance to enjoy the area highlights.  The boat tour of the locks was interesting and picturesque. 

We found the locks tour interesting.

We were able to see the coastlines of both Michigan as well as Sault Ste Marie, Canada (yes, it's VERY confusing!  It's located directly across the St. Mary's River from the Michigan Soo) and learn about the history of the area.

We also toured a freighter-turned-museum named the Valley Camp Museum. The tour gave us a hands-on feel for what life on a freighter must be like, including the "guts" of the ship.  A lifeboat from the shipwrecked Edmund Fitzgerald was one of the displays, and a somber one, at that (Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about the wreck). 

Valley Camp Museum

Valley Camp Museum. The inside of a ship is a complicated place.
After our time in The Soo, we went west along the shore of Lake Superior to Munising, Michigan.  Munising is a town by Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We camped for several days near there, and that was our home hub for our trip. 

Pictured Rocks is named for 13 miles of colorful sandstone cliffs along the shore of Lake Superior.  The sandstone has been sculpted by natural forces over the years and contains, in addition to beautiful colors from the minerals in the rocks, caves, arches, and rock formations.  The best way to get a feel for the vastness of the area is via Lake Superior. There are many options available, but we opted for a boat tour.  It was choppy on the water, which didn't bother any of us, but some of the passengers weren't so lucky.  It truly was a beautiful ride, as you can see by the photographs.

 

There are many waterfalls in this area.  I won't include all of them, but here are two:  

Wagner Falls

Munising Falls.

We visited Miners Castle Rock, one of the iconic rock formations in the area. It can be viewed by land, unlike some of the other formations.

Miner's Castle Rock

Another view of Miner's Castle Rock

We went on a lengthy hike along the North Country Trail one day, where we were surprised to learn we could view some of the cliffs from shore.  It was a stunning sight. 

View of cliffs from North Country Trail

Another cliff view

Along the way we saw yet another iconic rock formation known as Chapel Rock.  I am including different views of this rock to illustrate the unique feature of it. There is a lone pine growing here; originally, the outcropping of rock with the pine was connected to the mainland, but over time, erosion occured.  As you can see, the roots for the trees stretch across to the mainland. 

Chapel Rock
Chapel Rock. Notice the stretching roots.
 
No trip for me is complete without nerding out on history.  We spent a day visiting the Au Sable Light Station (say "Aw Sahble) and were able to tour it, including the catwalk at the top.  Unfortunately it was a drizzly day so the views were somewhat obscured.

Au Sable Light Station

Light station light

View from the light station

Along Lake Superior's beach in that area are the remains of shipwrecks, which you can walk beside on the beach.  We saw two within close proximity. 

Shipwreck remains

Remains of another ship that didn't make it.

We also went to Log Slide Overlook near the town of Grand Marais.  This is a very steep sand dune and the site of of former log camp.  The loggers slid the logs down the dune to Lake Superior, where they could be loaded onto ships.  We didn't opt to run down the dune--it's nearly vertical and takes about an hour to ascend.

Notice how steep the log slide is.
 Our last waterfall viewing was also our favorite.  Here's a picture of Sable Falls.

Sable Falls

I will leave you with a peaceful view of the lake at our campground.  Thank you for coming along this tour with me! 

We had a beautiful campground to come home to every day.

Thanks, Kris. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your vacation. I think we have very similar interests when taking a trip--outdoors with some history thrown in.

EEK! and Other Ramblings

Gosh, darn it! More mice are running around the house again. I am lucky that Ward usually sets the mouse traps around here, but he's been away for a few days helping his father, who had major surgery last week. I guess I'm gonna have to put on my big girl pants and put some traps out myself. As far as the mice are concerned, the only thing I've done about them so far is to wear shoes in the house. A friend was talking about a mouse that ran across their feet last week while they were standing in the kitchen. Now I know they are just little, mostly harmless creatures, but I'd rather not have a close encounter like that.

Last night, after seeing at least two scurrying around, I pretended that I was camping so I could go to sleep. It's funny how, if the mice are outside, I don't have any problems with them. It's when they come inside that I get a little lot skittish.

Ward examining the damage.

In other news, Debby came to town last week and took down an apple tree in the backyard. It was an older tree, so we were not entirely surprised, but very sad all the same. The good news is that it was far enough away from any buildings and our new fence that its fall did no damage. The apples on it aren't ripe, so we will process it when it looks dead, hoping the apples will ripen more. 

Debby's rain brought some other surprises. Mushrooms are popping up everywhere, and we had one in the front yard that was 10 inches tall. A simple but fun thing that had everyone in the neighborhood talking when they saw it on their evening walks. It had enough interest that we mowed around it when we cut the grass. A few days later, it collapsed under its own weight.

I'm tired, so I think I better stop before my ramblings don't make any sense.

Until next time...

Everything in Moderation Fail

 One of the sayings I try to practice is "Everything in moderation." That helps me keep things in check and not worry too much. I am much better at this than I used to be, but I am still a work in progress. That may have been the case last weekend.

Last weekend was my annual family reunion. We rotate among the families for hosts; this year, it was my family's turn. My sisters and I spent months planning with meetings, phone calls, lists, and spreadsheets. The event was held in the area where most of my cousins live, but unfortunately, that's about five hours from here. So, there were extra considerations for transporting and refrigeration. But we had a plan.

A view from one of our rest stops

We left Friday morning. I had to work the night before, but we were pretty well-packed, so that was not a problem. We were joined by another sister and friend and took off for our trip across the mountains. The trip went well despite the fact that we drove through heavy rains from Storm Debby. 

We arrived at our destination late afternoon where we had arranged to get into the church where we were holding the reunion tomorrow to drop things off. We met two more of my sisters there. After unloading the cars and doing some initial setup, we visited my cousin Jo because she is housebound and wouldn't be able to come to the reunion. It was a good visit, but it had to be cut short because we were meeting another cousin, Jewel, for dinner. That was also a good visit, but the food took over an hour to arrive. I was very tired and hungry at that point. After dinner, Jewel invited us to her house for a brief visit. 

By the time we reached the hotel, I was exhausted and ready to veg a little and go to bed. However, Miss Landers discovered a leak in her car, and I went down to help her clean it up. Now, I was ready to drop. However, sleep eluded me as my brain was busy processing all the social things I did during the day. Have I mentioned before that I'm an introvert? So, even if I enjoy social interactions, they zap my energy and can overstimulate my brain.

Anyway, we woke (so I did sleep a little) the next morning to a bright day and a good hotel breakfast bar. Before meeting at the church, we had to make a grocery store trip to get some last-minute things. And at the same time, we were trying to fix flowers for a couple of cemetery visits. Many of our relatives, including our parents, are buried at a country cemetery in the area, and we try to visit when we are in town. Two of my sisters took off on that task while Ward and I hurried to the church, meeting friends before the reunion. We finished setting up and started preparing the taco bar we were having. 

A photo of my grandfather my cousin found

The reunion went great. Good people, good food, and good fun. Our extensive planning paid off. Then, it was clean-up time. We cleaned up, packed the cars, and were on the road again. After a long drive, we got home around 9 p.m. Let me be the first to say I was worn out! However, a night in my own bed was a good start in recovering from our whirlwind 36 hours.

Our careful planning made the reunion a big success, and I loved visiting with my relatives and friends. However, I will be the first to admit this was not an "everything in moderation visit." But the problem is we feel compelled to tend to many things while we are in the area since we only make it there once a year or so. And work schedules prevent longer visits to spread the activities out. Maybe next time, I will remember how tired I was at the end of this and do things differently. We shall see how good my memory is.

Until next time...

Things Blooming Despite the Heat

 We continue to have very hot and humid days that are stressing many of the plants, but some are managing to bloom despite it all. Here are a few of them.

The ground has cracked open because of dryness,
but volunteer begonias are sprouting in the cracks.

Our one day lily bloom. Deer ate all of the orange ones around the corner.

The first surprise lilies have bloomed. More to come, I hope.

Black-eyed Susans, Maryland's State Flower

Purple sage

Allium (Millenium var.)

Dianthus

Abelia (Canon Creek var.)

After a flush of blooms in the spring, the spirea is starting to bloom again.

Two late bloomers on the oakleaf hydrangea bush.

One of the zinnias that survived the attack of the earwigs.

So, amongst the crunchy grass in some places and dying plants in other places, there are still plenty of things in the yard to make me smile - when I brave the heat to go find them. 😃

Until next time...

This and That

Flowers for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.

 I woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep because my busy mind was making plans. In the forefront was the family reunion my sisters and I are planning for next weekend. It will be five hours from here, where most of my cousins live, and the distance makes everything a bit more complicated. We are providing the main dish, which will be a taco bar. Also, we've got games, displays, and giveaways. And an impressive spreadsheet tracking it all. Now we're trying to figure out travel coordination with cars converging from different directions, grocery store trips to pick up perishables, hotel check-ins, Friday night dinner, a cemetery visit to decorate my parent's graves, and set up. 

The allium is in bloom now.

My sister and brother-in-law are coming down from Maine for the reunion and will come back to Maryland for a few days afterward. Their visit will be relaxed but full as we try to schedule times for them to visit with all of their nieces and nephews and work around everyone's work schedules. But I am looking forward to it all.

In the meantime, we are making progress with some of the house issues we were having. We've gone a couple of days without catching any more mice, and all of the bait has been untouched. I hope we got them all—at least for now. Interestingly enough, I have learned that several neighbors have been having mice problems, too.

Also, we got our washer fixed. We weren't sure if it was worth it to fix it since it was 18 years old, but because it is 18 years old, it was much better made than today's models. According to the repairman, we should be able to get several more good years out of it. So, for much less than the cost of a new washer, we're back in business washing clothes. And the convenience of that makes me happy.

The tomatoes are doing okay. I have been freezing some and have a box of yellow ones on the counter that I should do something with today. BTW, I love vine-ripe tomatoes.

It's still very hot and dry here, but we've had a few storms that brought a little rain. None of it has been a soaking rain, and the cracks in the ground are still there, but rain is rain, and it has been a welcome relief. Our rain gauge sits on one of our fence posts, or at least it used to. We haven't put it back up since we got the new fence, so I couldn't tell you exactly how much rain we've had. After Ward gets done building five easels to display things at the reunion, he is going to put the gauges back up. 

Ward is up now and going for his first cup of coffee. It's on days like this when I haven't had enough sleep that I wish I drank coffee. However, I never have. I say when they make it taste as good as it smells, I start having my morning cup.

Until next time...